The horrific extent to which Baby P was failed by nearly everyone who came into contact with him was laid bare yesterday.

Social workers, doctors and police committed a catalogue of errors
which led to the toddler’s death at the hands of his mother and her
sadistic boyfriend.

The full report into how the toddler died disclosed how Baby Peter’s
mother, Tracey Connelly, told the authorities she had a boyfriend – but
they did not ask who he was or insist on meeting him.

Victim: Baby Peter died in August 2007 aged 17 months

Sacked: Head of Children's Services in Haringey Sharon Shoesmith

She even named Steven Barker – who later battered Peter to death –
as her next of kin on health records, but council officials failed to
investigate his background.

Had they done so they would have discovered he had previously been
questioned by police on suspicion of torturing his grandmother.

The revelations came after ministers released in full the two serious case reviews into Baby P’s death.

The reports had been kept secret but were released by the Coalition after pressure by campaigners.

Seventeen-month-old Peter suffered more than 50 injuries in months of abuse by Connelly, Barker, and his brother Jason Owen.

That was despite 60 visits from social workers – as well as medics
and police – in the eight months before his death on August 3, 2007.

Yesterday it was revealed how:
■ Social workers never thought Baby P was being harmed and considered
his care to be ‘a routine, low risk case, requiring family support, and
never changed their minds’;

■ His mother was ‘disorganised, dirty and smelly’ and was ‘without much
conscience’, but social workers failed to confront her because she
‘intimidated the staff’;

■ Police strongly believed that Baby P’s injuries were non-accidental,
but ‘they did not do their duty by accepting the responsibility to
investigate the injuries’. They also swallowed Connelly’s account of
Barker’s limited involvement, which showed a ‘lack of thoroughness of
the police investigation’;

■ The family GP accepted Connelly’s lie that he ‘bruised easily’ when
he examined the baby at six months. In the final days of Baby P’s life
a GP said he was in a ‘sorry state’ but did not alert others;

■ Baby P’s natural father had offered to care for his son – but was
turned down because Connelly falsely claimed that he ‘slapped’ his
children. The child would almost certainly be living today had he been
handed over to his father;

■ The original report into Baby P’s death by disgraced council
services chief Sharon Shoesmith was condemned as ‘inadequate’ by
education chiefs.

The report chaired by Miss Shoesmith – who was later sacked as head of
children’s services at Haringey Council in north-east London – was
released in summary in November 2008.

Baby Peter died at the hands of his mother, Tracey Connelly, her boyfriend Steven Barker, right, and their lodgerJason Owen

A second review was ordered by the then children’s secretary Ed
Balls, which found the youngster’s ‘horrifying’ death ‘could and
should’ have been prevented by the public workers charged with
protecting him.

While only summaries of both reviews had previously been released, they were revealed in full yesterday.

The second report was scathing in its assessment of social workers,
who allowed the toddler to continue living with his mother despite
clear evidence he had repeatedly been attacked.

Crucially, social workers accepted Connelly’s litany of lies about
what happened to her, who she was living with and who had contact with
her children.
She said Barker – who had a rottweiler called Kaiser – was just a
friend and that he was never left alone with Peter. Officials never
questioned her claims.

The report said: ‘Hovering in the background to the situation is Mr H [Barker], the male friend of Ms A [Connelly].

‘The nature of his relationship to Ms A is not known, the extent of
his involvement with the household is also not known, and most
importantly his possible criminal background, anti-social behaviour or
general background, is not known.

‘A man joining a single parent household, who is unrelated to the
children, is well established in research as a potentially serious
threat to the well-being of the children.

‘He needs to be checked out and his involvement with and relationship to the children carefully assessed.’

As well as being named as next of kin, Barker went with her to
hospital in April 2007 after Baby P suffered a head injury, and he was
there when a social worker visited Connelly at home two months later.

But the report also makes clear that the warning signs were there
from the start, as, just days after Peter was born, a health worker
visited the home and found it to be ‘very untidy’.

The case was placed in a blue folder indicating it was a cause for
concern – yet he was still failed until the day he died in a
blood-spattered cot in Tottenham, north-east London.

baby p

Throughout, social workers took a ‘sanguine’ view of Peter’s
injuries. Even when doctors took the view that the injuries had been
inflicted deliberately, these were ‘discounted’, the report said.

Attempts to improve how Peter was looked after with a child
protection plan proved useless because officials then refused to
challenge Connelly’s failure to follow it.

Finally, in March 2007, just six months before Peter’s death,
Connelly was seen slapping one of his siblings in the face, in public,
‘with very little provocation’.

But no action was taken, police were not told and no charges pressed.

The report concluded: ‘It gave Ms A [Connelly] the wrong message –
that the authorities were not too bothered. This was not smacking or
considered parental discipline but a shocking loss of control directed
to the most vulnerable part of a child’s body.

‘The police were not informed even though it was a criminal assault;
this seemed to reflect the low expectations which many of the agencies
in Haringey appeared to have about families like this.’

Haringey Council said it has since made improvements to its social services regime.

Authorities failed to realise mother's violent partner was living in Baby P household

Baby P's mother named her violent partner as her next of kin on an official form but authorities still failed to realise he was living with her, the report revealed today.

The toddler's social worker was told Tracey Connelly had a boyfriend but did not ask who he was or request to meet him.

The report was scathing about social workers' failure to quiz Peter's mother about Barker after she named him as her next of kin in health records in mid-2007 and described him as a friend.

It highlighted child protection officials' failure to
establish Barker's identity, interview him and carry out background
checks on him.

Connelly told social workers he was only a friend and was not left alone with Peter.

But Barker apparently accompanied her to hospital in April 2007 after the toddler suffered a head injury, and he was present when a family support worker visited Connelly at home two months later.

The report noted: 'Hovering in the background to the situation is Mr H (Barker), the male friend of Ms A (Connelly).

'The nature of his relationship to Ms A is not known, the extent of his involvement with the household is also not known, and most importantly his possible criminal background, anti-social behaviour or general background, is not known.

'A man joining a single parent household who is unrelated to the children is well established in research as a potentially serious threat to the well-being of the children.

'He needs to be checked out and his involvement with and relationship to the children carefully assessed.'

Accused Baby P doctor must stay on medical register

A doctor accused of failing to spot that Baby P had a broken back at a
north London hospital days before his death has had her application to
be removed from the medical register rejected.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat is facing disciplinary
action at the General Medical Council over her care of the toddler.

Earlier this month she applied for 'voluntary erasure' from the medical
register, which would have avoided the need for a full misconduct
hearing.

But a GMC fitness to practise panel has rejected the request,
ruling that the 'serious' allegations against her should be heard in
public.

Dr Al-Zayyat examined 17-month-old Baby Peter at a child development clinic at St Ann's Hospital in Tottenham, on August 1 2007.

But she allegedly missed his injuries after deciding she could not carry out a full check-up because he was 'miserable and cranky'.

'More serious case reviews will be made public'

Ministers have also pledged to release the full serious case reviews
for Shannon Matthews, who was kidnapped by her own mother in February
2008, and the two young brothers who tortured two other boys in
Edlington, South Yorkshire, in April 2009.

The full report into
the case of Khyra Ishaq, who died in Birmingham in May 2008 after
months of starvation and cruelty at the hands of her mother and
stepfather, was published in July.

Serious case reviews are
carried out after a child dies or is seriously injured through abuse or
neglect to see what lessons can be learned.

But until now the detailed findings of the reports have been kept confidential and only a summary has been published.

The
previous Labour government said publishing them in full would put
vulnerable children and their families at greater risk, as well as
making people more reluctant to take part in child abuse investigations.

THE TRAGIC LIFE OF BABY P - TIMELINE

2006

March 1 - Peter Connelly is born to Tracey Connelly.November - Steven Barker, the boyfriend of the child's mother, moves
into her home. This is kept from police and social workers.December 11 - Peter is taken to Whittington Hospital in Archway,
north London, with bruises on his head, nose, chest and right shoulder.December 12 - Doctors refer the case to the Metropolitan Police's child abuse investigation team.December 15 - The little boy is given to family friend Angela Godfrey to look after.December 19 - Police arrest and interview Connelly on suspicion of assaulting her son. She denies injuring him.December 22 - Peter is placed on the child protection register.

2007

January - Peter is returned to his family after five weeks.January 9 - Police pass a file about the injuries to the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS), which requests further investigation.February - The family is rehoused in a larger, semi-detached property in Tottenham, north London.February 2 - Haringey Council appoints Maria Ward as the family's new social worker.April 9 - Peter is admitted to North Middlesex Hospital in Edmonton,
north London, with bruises, two black eyes and swelling on his head.
His mother claims the injuries were caused after another child pushed
the infant onto a marble fireplace. The episode is not reported to
police.April 11 - Peter is discharged from hospital.June - Jason Owen - Barker's brother - moves into the home with a 15-year-old runaway he describes as his girlfriend.June 1 - Ms Ward alerts police after bruises and scratches appear on
the little boy's face. He is examined at the North Middlesex Hospital.June 5 - Officers interview Connelly under caution. She blames another child for the marks.July 25 - Lawyers advise Haringey Council social workers that they cannot legally take Peter into care.July 30 - Ms Ward makes a pre-arranged home visit. She misses
injuries on Peter's face and hands after he is deliberately smeared
with chocolate to hide them.July 31 - Police hand over further reports to the CPS, including
statements from two doctors saying Peter's bruising was suggestive of
"non-accidental" injury.
Prosecutors decide there is not enough evidence to bring a case.August 1 - Peter is taken to a child development clinic at St Ann's Hospital in Tottenham, north London.
Paediatrician Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat decides she cannot carry out a full check-up as the boy is 'miserable and cranky'.
A post-mortem examination later reveals Peter had probably already suffered a broken back and fractured ribs by this point.August 2 - Police tell Connelly she will not be prosecuted.
That evening, the child receives the fatal last blow to the mouth, knocking his tooth out.August 3 - A 999 call is made at 11.36am. Four minutes later
paramedics find Peter lying in his blood-spattered cot. He is
pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
An attempt has been made to cover the crime, with the child's clothes and bedding removed and dumped.